Description
When Starday Records debuted in June of 1953 in Beaumont, Texas, owners Jack Starns, Jr. and Harold 'Pappy' Daily intended it to be a pure country label. Don Pierce came in as a co-owner a few months later, and the logo did well right out of the gate. Once Starns left and rockabilly came on strong during the mid-'50s, Starday attracted plenty of talent in that field too.
The first of Bear Family's two volumes of Starday rockabilly offers 33 classic sides, some by the label's best-known rockers: Sonny Fisher, Link Davis, Sleepy LaBeff (as he spelled his name back then), Rudy 'Tutti' Grayzell and George Jones (his blistering How Come It, released as by Thumper Jones) among them.
Starday often utilized the house band at Houston's Gold Star Recording for its rockabilly output, Hal Harris a mainstay on lead guitar. The most obscure inclusions on the compilation hail from Starday's Custom Series, where unknown artists out in the hinterlands could send in their homemade tapes and for a fee receive 300 copies of their amateur artistry on vinyl.
That's how some of this disc's hottest and rarest rockers came over the transom, including gems by Buddy Shaw, Larry Nolen, Hal Payne, Arnold Parker and The Southernairs, and Lou Walker. Undiluted Lone Star rockabilly at its hottest!
- The first of two CD albums in the 'That'll Flat Git It!' series on Bear Family Records, dedicated to the legendary Starday label from Texas.
- From a straight country label, Starday quickly developed into a rockabilly pioneer with big names like George Jones and Sleepy LaBeef.
- The salt in the soup, however, is provided by the rather unknown, sometimes amateurish, often obscure young and energetic performers that Starday released in the Custom Series.
- Unadulterated Lone Star Rockabilly at its best!
- Detailed liner notes by Bill Dahl in the 36-page booklet, plus, as always in the Rockabilly series, selected pictures and illustrations as well as careful mastering from the best possible sources.
- Includes 36 page booklet
